Wednesday night, the Capitals’ top six suffered a major blow when the NHL’s Department of Player Safety suspended forward Tom Wilson for three games.

In the regular season, Wilson was the team’s most improved and chaotic player, registering career highs in goals, assists, and points. In the playoffs, Wilson built on his stellar #rego play, tallying seven points (2g, 5a) in nine games. The burly winger has created time and space for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin.

Thursday morning, Barry Trotz adjusted the Capitals lines ahead of Game Four and chose to promote grinder Devante Smith-Pelly (2g, 1a) to the top line. Jakub Vrana was bumped from the fourth line to the third.

The trio of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Tom Wilson has been the team’s best in the postseason and stepped up their play from the regular season. During a little over 118 minutes at 5v5, the line has a dominant 56.0 shot attempts percentage. They’ve been on the ice for eight goals and six against.

The trio of Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Smith-Pelly struggled with pushing play during the regular season and were underwater in goals percentage, but perhaps Trotz wanted a more physical player to mimic Wilson’s success.